Teens March To Their Drums

As the students leaned into their drums, pounding out an African rhythm, Dwight ``Professor'' Baldwin moved to their music -- body bouncing, head nodding, mouth stretched open in a song.

``Row, row, row your boat,'' he sang, smiling at the 10 young drummers in his class.

As part of a new arts program, dozens of sixth-graders at Keigwin Annex are learning drumming, dance and guitar, all of it with an emphasis on Latin and African culture. It is a far cry from study hall, where the students had spent their Wednesday free period.

The work in these classes takes a more exotic form. The idea for the three workshops came from John Hennelly, assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction, who saw them as a way to stimulate the creative expression of students who are not involved in band or chorus. The program, which is funded with a grant, will last 12 sessions.

In March, the students in each workshop will come together for a group performance. But on Wednesday, the sixth-graders were only three classes into the art of drumming.

As Baldwin's hands danced across his drum, the students tried to follow his movements, some tapping on their instruments, others hitting harder, and one boy slamming his hands down with the full force of his body.

``We've learned how to let the child do the creating,'' said Christine Dixon-Smith, organizer of the workshops and founder of the Sankofa Kuumba Cultural Arts Consortium. ``You teach them a step and say, `Let's see what you can do with this music.'''

Although most children are comfortable with the arts in elementary school, they often become stiff and self-conscious as they get older, rejecting music and dance for fear of embarrassing themselves, Dixon-Smith said. The workshops come at that crucial age, she said, when kids are looking to express themselves and need a safe environment to do it. The classes also teach students much-needed skills such as discipline and tolerance as they work together to make music.

One of the main objectives of the course, Hennelly said, is to delve into different cultures through music. Baldwin showed the students in his Wednesday class rhythms ranging from Native American to Brazilian to African. The students used their fingers, then the palms of their hands, to find the beats.

``It has a healing to it,'' said Baldwin, who has worked with a variety of students, including the blind and the developmentally disabled.

There is something about the drums, he said, that makes people feel empowered. It emphasizes the individual, and also the group, in a way that makes everyone equal. Baldwin calls his workshop, which he teaches across the country, Saving Children Through Drumming.

To Natalie Schweighoffer, one of only two girls in the class, just signing up for the workshop was an act of self-expression.

``Not a lot of girls wanted to do it,'' said Scheweighoffer, 11. ``So I thought I'd be different.''